attack on the capitol
Capitol Police officer: Rioters 'beat police officers with Blue Lives Matter flags'
A Capitol Police officer is speaking out about the Jan. 6 riot in a new interview, describing feeling "scared" as "terrorists" attacked the Capitol building and fearing they would "take me out."
Officer Harry Dunn, who was at the Capitol during last month's riot by supporters of former President Donald Trump, spoke with ABC News in an interview that aired Monday, offering a harrowing account of his experience and describing how police officers "fought with these people who were prepared for a fight."
"I was scared," Dunn said. "I was absolutely scared. I'm on this platform — I'm a big guy, I'm 6'7", I'm this giant person — and we had our guns out, and I'm thinking, all these people out there, they're armed, too. And I'm like, 'I'm going to get shot. They're going to take me out.'"
At one point, Dunn told ABC he confronted a group of rioters who had "the nerve" to be carrying a Blue Lives Matter flag while there were "dozens of officers down." He also described how some of the rioters began calling him the N-word, and "everybody" in the crowd "joined in with them," with Dunn adding that there were "a large number of people in that crowd that were racists."
After the riot ended, Dunn recalled looking over the damage and reflecting on what had happened.
"I sat down with a good friend of mine, [and] I said, 'Is this America? What the hell just happened?'" Dunn said. "And I told him, 'Man, I got called [the N-word] a couple dozen times today protecting this building. Is this America? They beat police officers with Blue Lives Matter flags. They fought us, they had Confederate flags in the U.S. Capitol."
Dunn also praised Eugene Goodman, the officer who has been hailed as a hero for his actions during his riot, while noting there were "so many Eugene Goodmans that weren't caught on camera that day." Brendan Morrow